


Vapor Trail

by BarracudaHeart, CosmicTanzanite



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Based on the "Gyro Built the Spear of Selene and was Heavily Affected by Della's Accident" Theory, Della and Gyro were best friends, Flashbacks, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Canon, Presumed Death, Trauma, Two Shot, Unplanned Pregnancy, and Della has a secret romance with a moon goddess on the side, wlw/mlm solidarity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-05 10:30:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 18,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17917031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarracudaHeart/pseuds/BarracudaHeart, https://archiveofourown.org/users/CosmicTanzanite/pseuds/CosmicTanzanite
Summary: Della feared nothing, and she went soaring into the great beyond. Gyro feared everything, and he was sent crashing into pieces.





	1. Chapter 1

Gyro’s heart was thudding inside his ribcage as he entered the elevator. He’d done his best to look as sharp as he possibly could that day: freshly ironed button-up shirt, his least ragged bowtie and a pair of shoes without a single hole in them. The day before, he had even gotten a haircut. However, it didn’t really turn out like he was hoping at all, so he had to resort to putting on a hat. At least it was a nice hat.   
  
While he road the elevator up to what would be his lab for who knows how long, he could feel his nerves going absolutely wild. He was tapping his foot in anticipation and found himself idly chewing on the finger he was resting against his beak. This was his first day on the job, and he was shocked that he’d even landed it to begin with. The project he’d demonstrated for Scrooge during the interview had gone absolutely haywire, nearly setting the room on fire. And it was only meant to be a simple device to wash clothes quicker than your average washing machine!   
  
Nonetheless, he was surprised to find himself a few days later as an intern at McDuck Enterprises, a job under the richest duck in the world. Why he hired him he would never know, but it was a done deal, and now he was walking into his first job ever at such a prominent place as an anxiety-ridden 18-year-old with poor social skills, a voice that cracked at every interval and an awful haircut. Something told him there was a large chance of this going unfavorably, but he tried his best to shove that thought away and think positively about the situation.    
  
Finally, the doors opened with a loud ping, and Gyro found himself in his new workplace. He walked out slowly, still trembling as he tried his hardest to take everything in. Although he’d been told that Mr. McDuck would meet him here on his first day of the job, as well as his colleagues, he didn’t see anyone in sight. He looked down to his arm again, pulling back the sleeve of his shirt to reveal his watch. It was the exact time he was told to arrive.    
  
Deciding they were possibly deeper in the lab, Gyro decided to wander. He took note of his surroundings the best he could, although his jumbled thoughts made everything seem like something he’d appreciate better when he was less nervous. It was all rather  impressive, though. The view from the window and into the ocean was possibly the best part of it. Feeling a small grin creep onto his face, he thought it probably wouldn’t hurt if he took some time to look out the window.    
  
He turned on his heel, making his way over to the vast windows surrounding him, but before he could even take more than a few steps, a voice behind him startled him out of his thoughts and actions.    
  
“Who are you?”   
  
Gyro was so jumpy upon hearing the unexpected noise that he almost fell flat on his face trying to whip around and face whoever he was talking to. In his anxious state, he wasn’t able to make out the tone of the voice, so naturally, he assumed it was Mr. McDuck. However, when he finally collected her nerves enough to face the other, the intern realized that it wasn’t him at all.    
  
Standing in front of him was a duck with short, white hair. She was dressed in a dark brown jacket and shorts, as well as a light blue scarf around her neck. Although she didn’t look much older than him, something told Gyro that she was, perhaps because of the way she carried herself. This duck must be one of the other interns, he decided.    
  
Before he could introduce himself, the sound of the elevator opening startled him again. Scrooge McDuck stepped out as hastily as he could, immediately noticing where Gyro stood and making his way toward that direction.    
  
“My apologies, lad!” he called. “The traffic was dreadful out there. I think someone got into an accident, and-” The billionaire’s voice cut off when he noticed the duck standing in front of his new intern, and he gasped. “Della! What are you doing here?”   
  
“Oh no,” she whispered, rolling her eyes in frustration before looking to Scrooge. “Heh! Hey there, Uncle Scrooge! Funny seeing you here, of all places.”   
  
Gyro’s beak dropped a little when he heard her refer to his new boss as her uncle. This definitely wasn’t just an intern he was dealing with here.   
  
“Curse me kilts, lass, you can’t just stay down here all day bothering the head of research and his crew,” he sighed, rubbing his forehead.    
  
“I wasn’t bothering anyone!” Della retorted. “I was just trying to watch!”   
  
“And they kicked you out of the room for interfering with their projects again, did they?”   
  
Della’s gentle smile slowly morphed into a much more nervous one at her uncle’s accusation. “.....Okay, I wasn’t _ trying _ to interfere, but now that you mention it, maybe I did go a bit overboard when I grabbed the screwdriver from that intern with the big hair, and I suppose-”   
  
“I don’t wanna hear it,” Scrooge cut her off, letting out a small chuckle. He leaned in slightly to Gyro, giving him a playful nudge. “You’ve gotta watch out for that one. She’ll run off with your whole invention if you aren’t careful.”    
  
“That was one time, and I gave it back!” she defended herself, huffing. 

“Good luck lad.” The billionaire tipped his hat to Gyro, and gave a stern look to Della. “Be back upstairs in two minutes, lass.”

Della gave a disdainful look as Scrooge exited up the elevator and mimicked his voice under her breath before looking at Gyro with a weirdly mischievous grin.

“Hey. Glasses. You got any projects you’re working on at the moment?”

“U-Um, I just got here,” Gyro stuttered meekly, face warm.

“Ah.” Della slouched a bit. “Well, my uncle probably had a point in that I like to add a bit of my  _ own little touch _ to each invention down here.”

Gyro didn’t like the sound of that, and he swallowed hard. “O-Oh.”

“Yeah. So I can’t wait what you come up with.” She winked deviously and sauntered over to a work in progress that two other scientists were huddled around and grabbed for a wrench. “Heeeyyyy, buddies!” 

Gyro heard the scientists groan with dread and immediately tried to focus himself back into setting up his desk. He tried not to imagine what disaster would befall his projects once Della put her hands on them.

* * *

Every day for the first two weeks, Gyro would come into work and be assigned to various inventions to assist construction on. He would do his job without any complaint or verbage to the scientist he was helping. He figured it was best he was seen and not heard. Unfortunately, no matter how much hard work and diligence he put into his work every day, it only took the sudden startling greeting of Scrooge’s niece to make him mess up. 

He tried to be curt but polite, in hope she would stop interacting with him, but his efforts to do so were futile. Her exuberant headlocks, giddy smacks on the shoulder and sudden hands over the eyes from behind were unavoidable, and Gyro could sense he was going to get an ulcer if she kept it up. 

None of the scientists said anything on the off-chance that Della went off to her uncle and told him she had been scolded. Even if McDuck admitted to her naughtiness, she was still his favorite niece, and he could go through a million scientists in a year if he so wanted. If they wanted job security, it was probably best they just not discipline Della.

Unfortunately, Gyro wasn’t sure how much more he could take. This was the same anxiety he’d gotten through school when peers picked on him. He was just waiting for the day that Della would shove him against a locker and call him ‘Screwloose.’

It had been close to three weeks when Gyro had been wondering if he could maybe transfer to another lab of McDuck Enterprises...if there was one. But before he could ask another scientist, he felt his foot catch, and he immediately went falling face-forward. The tray of chemicals he had been carrying to his superior went to the floor with a crash, acidic liquid immediately sinking a sizable hole into the linoleum.

“Hey Gy-guy!” Della cheered with delight. “You gotta be more careful and look where you’re going! Otherwise you could trip on something in here. Like my foot!” She laughed, shaking one of her webbed feet.

Gyro shakily got up, feeling his face grow hot as he took note of the spill he’d made, the shattered glass and the throbbing soreness in one of his knees from landing on it. He whirled around and choked out, “Why are you  _ picking on me _ ?! What have I done to you?”

The jesting smile on Della’s bill dropped as soon as Gyro spoke, and she suddenly looked a lot more shocked and afraid than anything. “What do you mean?”   
  
“You know exactly what I mean!” the chicken shot back, throwing his hands out for emphasis. “Why do you always torture me?”   
  
“Torture you?”   
  
“Yes!” Gyro’s voice was getting squeaky as he adamantly continued to defend himself. “You make fun of me, trip me, try to steal things off my desk, including my lunch that one time, and you just...you…” He sighed, realizing how worked up he was getting before whimpering out a few final words. “Why do you hate me so much?”   
  
For a while, nobody spoke. Gyro was trying his hardest to hold back tears, knowing that was often seen as a sign of weakness and definitely wouldn’t give him the upper hand in this situation, but he couldn’t stop two or three from rolling down his cheek. As for Della, she was looking to the ground and nervously rubbing at her arm.    
  
“Gyro,” she finally said, “I don’t hate you. I thought we were having fun! I’m just playing around, y’know?”    
  
The intern narrowed his eyes. “No. I don’t know. Judging by my past experiences, I’m only treated this way by people who want to beat me up and stuff my body in a locker.”    
  
“Oh….” Della nervously played with a strand of hair and tried to smile. “Well, I definitely don’t wanna do any of that. You’re fun to pick on, sure, but I’d never actually try to hurt you or something. Don’t worry about it!”   
  
Gyro was still a bit wary of her apology and glared at the duck. “Whatever,” he groaned, dismissing her without another word and walking away as she stared after him with a hurt and confused expression on her face.   
  
When Gyro returned to his desk, which was a rather small one pushed up against a corner and mostly isolated from the rest of the lab, he began to work on the blueprints he’d been asked to contribute to. However, the gears in his head failed to turn as they normally would. All he could think about was the awkward conversation he’d just had with Mr. McDuck’s niece.    
  
Hopefully, she wasn’t angry with him. If she was, he could easily be fired, and the thought terrified him, seeing that it was so hard for him to find this job in the first place. But after some more logical and less anxiety-influenced thinking, Gyro decided that she didn’t seem mad at all. In fact, she seemed a little upset. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so harsh on her.    
  
No, he reminded himself. She was hurting his feelings, and that was something she needed to know even if she wasn’t aware of it. Part of him was proud of himself for standing up to someone who was causing him grief, for it’d never been something he was good at.    
  
Getting lost in his thoughts, Gyro felt himself starting to get tired. There was a lot on his mind and somehow, looking at the blueprints was making him crash even harder. Before he knew it, he was out like a light, face resting on his desk and cuddled up in his arms.    
  
About an hour and a half later, he jolted awake from his nap and mentally scolded himself for letting it happen in the first place. Looking at the clock, he realized that he still had an hour of work left, which was probably enough time to get at least a little bit further on his blueprints.    
  
He turned his attention to the desk, but on top of his work, he noticed something else: a piece of paper, neatly folded into four sections and his name written on the one that was showing. Curious as to what it was, he picked it up and began to unfold it. Perhaps Mr. McDuck didn’t want to wake him but had some sort of urgent news. It didn’t look like his handwriting, though.    
  
Once it had been opened, Gyro adjusted his glasses, so he could clearly read the words written there:   
  
_ Gyro,  _ _  
_ _  
_ _ I’m sorry about how I treated you. I didn’t realize it was hurting you and I’ll be careful not to do anything like it again. I hope you can forgive me. _ _  
_ _  
_ _ \- Della _

* * *

Now that some ground rules had been established, Gyro began to feel less tense when Della entered the lab. She’d still loudly call out to him in greeting as she hurried over to his desk, but at least she wouldn’t “edit” his blueprints in permanent marker or fullback-tackle his legs to make him fall flat. In fact, he’d gotten so used to her visiting the lab every day, that when she didn’t, he couldn’t help but wonder where she was. Just curiosity, not worry.

Every time she was away for a few days, she’d come back and regale all the disinterested scientists with tales of the adventures and travelling she’d just done. And she was always eager to give out souvenirs.

“I was in the Apennine Mountains, and I scaled to the highest peak,” she said with a grin. “Probably gonna get a wicked scar on my elbow.” She showed the battle wound to Gyro as he was tearing apart and repiecing an old clock.

“How did you get that? Tripping on a ledge, if I had to guess by the size?”

“Pfft, oh please. I got it by fighting off a snowy eagle!” She crooked her fingers to imitate its talons, then rolled up her pants leg to show a nasty scrape. “Now this one I got from tripping on a ledge.”

“Oh my god, would you please bandage that?” Gyro yelped, horrified at the gruesome wound.

“What? It’ll heal on its own!”

“Then put your pants leg back down or something, please!” Gyro gagged. “I have egg salad for lunch.”

“Fetus Salad?”

Gyro began to turn a fair shade of green, and Della couldn’t help but laugh a bit while trying to dissuade his nausea by shouting out various scientific elements until he seemed to catch his breath. After looking at his Beakbook, she found out that was a way he liked to handle motion sickness.

“Oh, by the way,” she mentioned a few hours later as he was about to go home, “got you a present. You were wanting a new hat, right?”

“Er, not especially?” Gyro shrugged, grabbing his coat.

“Well, I gotcha one anyway. They were selling it at the airport in Italy.” She smiled, holding out a fancy, flat-topped boater style hat. Even if Gyro thought his current hat was nice, this definitely was nicer.

“Ah...thanks. I’ll wear it on Sundays.”

“Huh, a churchgoer, eh?” Della cocked an eyebrow.

“Oh no. I do laundry on Sundays. It wouldn’t be sanitary to wear an outfit 7 days in a row, yes?”

“You’ve been wearing that all week.”

“...Yes?”  
  


* * *

About two years after he started working at McDuck Enterprises as an intern, Gyro was hired full-time as an assistant. He couldn’t have been happier when Mr. McDuck gave him the news and let him know that job stability was something he had under his belt. It was such relieving and wonderful news that he found himself in a bit of an ambitious and productive mood after receiving it. 

Since his promotion, Gyro had been told he was allowed to begin his own projects independent from those of the other scientists. It had been something he hadn’t been allowed to do when he was merely an intern, so the thought of being able to really get his ideas out there instead of contributing them to those of others was one that kept him motivated. Unfortunately, when he finally sat down to work on something, he realized an important detail: he had no idea what he wanted to make. 

  
This whole situation was so new and intimidating and left him with so many options. He could build a self-driving car, a portable vacuum, a time machine, even something small like a device that opened pickle jars; he could do just about anything! But that was the problem: “anything” was too vague. His brain was much too wired to settle with one idea, although he so desperately wanted to start on something.    
  
After a while, Gyro’s own thoughts were starting to give him a massive headache. He groaned and got to his feet, deciding that a break might do him good. Maybe a nice cup of coffee would secure his thinking cap and allow him to settle on a starting point. However, right as he was pushing his chair underneath his desk, a voice from behind and arms wrapping tight around his torso startled him and caused him to yelp.   
  
“Gy-guy! I’m so freakin’ happy for you!”   
  
When he let the shock of being touched so suddenly settle in and realized who it was, his anxiety subsided. He still wasn’t very comfortable in this position though.    
  
“Della!” he choked out. “I literally can’t breathe right now!”   
  
“Oh, oops!” She let go quickly, causing Gyro to slump over like a sack of potatoes as he caught his breath. “Sorry ‘bout that.”   
  
“It’s alright.”    
  
“Anyway,” she continued, “Uncle Scrooge told me he landed you a permanent job, so I came down here to congratulate you on that!” She gave him a rather hard pat to the back, catching him off-guard once more. “I knew you could do it!”   
  
“Ah!” Gyro squeaked in response, rubbing at his back but unable to stop a smile from making its way to his beak. “Heh. Thanks, Della.”   
  
“Don’t even mention it!” The duck’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Oh yeah! I also got you this!” She fished around in the pocket of her shorts before pulling out a card and handing it to him, grinning even wider. “Open it!”   
  
Gyro took the card from his friend’s hands and studied it. On the front, there was a picture of a tabby cat with a briefcase, tie and glasses. When he opened it, the inside read in Della’s handwriting:   
  
_ Congrats on the job security! _ _  
_ _  
_ _ Your pal,  _ _  
_ _ Della _ _  
_ _  
_ It was complete with a winking smiley face at the end of the signature, and Gyro put the card down to reveal Della’s face mimicking it right in front of him. Even through all of his stress, it put a sincere grin on his face.    
  
“Thank you,” he replied. “This is really nice of you.”   
  
“Awww, shucks. It was nothing!” She chuckled. “I saw it at the store when I was picking up some bread, and I knew you really like cats, so I thought, hey! Why not?”   
  
“I do like cats,” Gyro mused, setting the card down on his desk. “Keen observation.”   
  
“Yeah, well, it’s not like you don’t post about them on literally every social media profile you have,” she laughed, giving him a smug smile.    
  
The chicken let out a good-natured laugh. “You got me there.”   
  
Throughout the past two years, Della and Gyro had grown closer as friends. They were now at a point in their relationship where light teasing and playful jokes could be made, which was surprising given their awkwardness with the topic during the first few weeks they knew each other. Nonetheless, it was good to have someone in the workplace who he could consider a friend.    
  
Although the other scientists were kind, they weren’t really on the same level of friendliness with Gyro as Della. He even wondered if that might be a reason why Mr. McDuck decided to keep him around. In all honesty, Della would probably try to break her uncle’s kneecaps if he hadn’t. Gyro wouldn’t have been too happy to part with her either. It was nice to have a friend.   
  
While the inventor was putting the card he’d just received back on his desk, Della walked over to it as well and peered over his shoulder at the open notebook on his desk. “Hey, what’s all that?”   
  
Gyro felt his heart sink when his mind traveled back to his current creative block. “It’s nothing,” he sighed, hoping to avoid the topic.   
  
He should’ve known better with Della. She raised an eyebrow, tapping her fingers on the table. “It exists, and I’m looking at it. Therefore, it’s something.”    
  
The chicken groaned. “Ugh, I hate it when you one-up me.”   
  
“It’s my pleasure,” Della joked with a smirk.    
  
Sighing, Gyro continued to speak. “I’m trying to think of something to create for my first solo invention.”   
  
Della’s eyes lit up, and she let out an excited squeal. “Oh my gosh, seriously!? A solo invention!?”   
  
Gyro nodded shyly. “Yes.”   
  
“That’s so wicked!” she gasped. “My little Gy-guy’s growing up!”   
  
He blushed in embarrassment at her comment. “C’mon! I’m only like, what, two years younger than you?”   
  
“Three,” she corrected him. “But seriously, Gyro, this is really cool. Do you have any idea of what you’re gonna do yet? Something with lasers? Fire? Fire  _ and _ lasers?”   
  
The chicken shifted nervously, a disappointed sigh leaving his throat. “I….can’t really think of anything, actually.”   
  
“What?” Della looked bewildered. “That’s crazy! You probably have a gazillion ideas in that big ol’ noggin of yours.”   
  
He couldn’t help but laugh a little at her words. “That’s kind of the problem.”   
  
“Huh?”   
  
“There’s just so many things I could be doing, that I can’t settle on any of them,” he admitted. “I have so many ideas swimming around in there, but when I try to stick with just one, something else comes up and then another and then another and ahhhh!” Gyro threw his hands in the air before crossing his arms and pouting. “It’s so frustrating! I just want to make something that helps people! Makes their lives easier?” He let another chuckle slip from his beak. “That’s kind of what I need right now.”   
  
A pause settled in the air as both of them thought over what the inventor had just said. And then, after almost a minute, an idea found itself into Della’s head. Gyro could tell by the way her eyes lit up and by the genuine smile of excitement he could see settling on her face.   
  
“Well….why don’t you just make something that does everything?”    
  
It hadn’t been what Gyro was expecting at all, and he squawked in surprise to convey that. “What!? Everything!? Like  _ everything _ everything!?”   
  
“Sure!” she answered, beaming. “Why not?”   
  
“Because that’s exceedingly difficult!” Gyro countered. “I can’t even begin to think about how many different commands I would need to write for that thing! And oh, where would I even start? What kind of item is something so powerful that it could be used as a base for an invention designed to complete every task known to mankind? I mean, I suppose it would need to be a sort of humanized robot, in a way. Something sentient. I’ve never been good at sentient things at all, but it has been something I’ve been looking to improve on….”    
  
He sat down at his desk and grabbed the pencil he’d been using earlier, jotting down every idea that popped into his head. While he was mumbling to himself about the different things he would need to decide on and get together, Della was leaning over with a wide smirk on her face. They both knew Gyro was too proud to admit it, but she was a smart one and knew very well that her idea was going to help her friend come a long way with whatever this new project would be.

* * *

“So yeah, that’s why I had to shelve the ‘do-it-all-robot’,” Gyro sighed. “I just couldn’t keep up with so many ideas at once. I swear, whenever I get in that lab, all the ideas in my brain end up ping-ponging around in my head like a bingo cage, and-”

“Gyro are you gonna eat those fries?” Della was eyeing her friends’ plate, wanting to stop his monologue before he exhausted his voice.

“Huh? O-oh yeah!” He nodded, stuffing a few in his mouth and offered the plate to her.

Every few weeks, the two friends would go out to the local diner near the money bin and have lunch. It wasn’t much, but it had become somewhat of a tradition they both could share, even when things were at their busiest.

“Anyway,” she spoke, potato mash coming out of her mouth, “while I am kinda bummed you dropped that sweet little ditty we came up with, I guess I can’t blame you. I swear Uncle Scrooge is promoting you like, every month now or something?”

“I’m honestly terrified.”

“Hey, more money!” She gave a thumbs up.

“Well, for all I know, he’s planning to adopt me as his new nephew and make me fight you and your brother gladiator-style for the inheritance.” The chicken sucked on the lemon peel he’d been letting soak in his water cup.

“I’ll make your death quick,” Della assured with a snicker.    
  
She was about to ask for a refresher of coffee from their waiter when he walked by their table and noticed how Gyro’s eyes were fixated on the man as he was bussing a window seat, lemon peel absentmindedly hanging from his mouth. 

Della smirked. “Like what you see there, Gy-guy?”

Gyro immediately jolted in his seat and flushed brightly, almost choking. “Wh-Wha, no! I was just staring into space.”

“I’ve seen you stare into space.” Della leaned an elbow on the table. “You were checking out the waiter’s butt, weren’t you?”

“Not so loud!” Gyro hissed under his breath, cheeks still pink. “But ah...maybe?”

“You should ask for his number,” she goaded. “You really gotta get on the scene!”

“Della, this isn’t like your trysts with the moon goddess,” the chicken whined. “I don’t know how to ask people out or for anything beyond a name to write on papers!”

“Then I’ll do it for you!” she declared, slapping the table. “Hey! Ronnie, was that it? I want the check, and my buddy here wants something else!”

“No, no, no!” Gyro whispered, wanting to melt under the table.

When the waiter came by with the check, he glanced at Gyro. “What else was it you needed?”

After a terrified few seconds of silence, Gyro spat out, “I need another lemon slice!”

Della swatted her forehead in exasperation. It was a learning curve. A very, very steep one.

* * *

 

“Della! Hey, Della!”   
  
Gyro called his friend’s name as loud as he could, quickly making his way through the vast halls of McDuck Manor. He’d just made a fantastic breakthrough in his attempts to make oxygen-producing chewing gum, and Della was always the first to know about those. She took such a liking to all the work he did, and seeing her face light up every time he explained something he’d done made him feel more validated than even the respect of his colleagues.    
  
When he was about to turn right down one of the mansion’s halls, a familiar voice a few rooms to his left caught him off-guard. Of course! She was in her bedroom. Where else would she be? The inventor began to run toward the sound of his friend’s voice but stopped in his tracks when he heard another one, assumedly coming from the same room.   
  
“I’m not kidding around, Della! You could’ve gotten yourself and all of us killed back there!”   
  
“For the last time, will you just drop it? We’re fine, Uncle Scrooge is fine,  _ everyone  _ is fine! It’s okay!”   
  
“No! It’s not okay until I know you’re not going to pull anything else like that again!”   
  
Gyro remained frozen outside the door, finally recognizing the voice as her brother, Donald. He could tell now that the conversation they were having was a rather intense one and probably one they didn’t want him listening in on. However, he couldn’t move a muscle.    
  
“How was I supposed to know that taking the idol so quickly would set off all those traps?” he heard Della defend herself.   
  
“Because something like that always happens!” Donald’s tense voice shot back. “We explore temples all the time. You should have known, and even if you didn’t, it was still a stupid, impulsive thing to do like every move you make!”   
  
“What do you mean every move I make?” Della snapped. “Who saved your butt back when you fell off the boat that one time? Or with the quicksand? Or with that giant tiger? Or with-”   
  
“That’s enough!” Donald yelled, silencing his sister. There was a pause, and he sighed. “Look, I know you love adventuring, but you’ve really got to learn how to be more careful. Uncle Scrooge and I could never handle losing you.”   
  
More silence. Gyro listened with baited breath, trying his hardest not to make a single noise. Then, Della replied.    
  
“Whatever. Go on and make all the excuses in the world, but we all know you guys just want to hold me back.”   
  
Donald was quick to cut in. “Della, that’s not true-”   
  
“Get out of here, Donald.”    
  
After another pause, Gyro was jolted into action by the sound of Donald’s footsteps reaching the door. Luckily, there was a statue nearby that his small, shrimpy body could hide behind so he wasn’t seen by his friend’s brother. The chicken watched as Donald walked away and toward the stairs, stopping occasionally to look back at Della’s room until he eventually disappeared from his sight. And almost on cue with his departure came the sound of choked sobbing from the room next to Gyro.    
  
Perhaps he was supposed to take this as his cue to leave his friend alone, but for some reason, he just couldn’t. Slowly and shakily, he followed the sound of Della’s crying to the room nearest to him and made his presence known, entering the doorway. He saw her sitting slumped over on her bed, face buried in her hands. When she heard his footsteps, she looked up, and he could see just how much she’d been letting out, her eyes red and puffy.    
  
“I’m sorry,” Gyro choked out. “Do you want me to leave?”   
  
Della blinked, wiping her face with the sleeve of her shirt and sniffling. “No,” she sighed, looking away. “Stay.”   
  
“Oh.” It hadn’t been the answer Gyro was expecting, but it wasn’t one he was against. He took tentative steps toward where his friend sat on her bed and looked down at the space next to her. “Can I sit there?”   
  
She nodded. “Sure.”   
  
After the inventor had seated himself, a long silence filled the room. Della was trying hard not to start crying again, and Gyro could tell. He was feeling a little awkward himself, but his worry was overpowering any other emotion.    
  
Finally, Della spoke. “So how much of that did you hear?”   
  
Gyro winced. “Most of it, I think.”   
  
“Ah. Great.” She tapped her fingers against her leg for a little while, before reaching her arms out and falling backwards onto her bed with a loud thud. Gyro looked behind himself and to his friend.    
  
“You gonna be okay?”   
  
“I guess,” she answered, shrugging. “It’s not like this isn’t something I’ve had to deal with my whole life anyway.”    
  
“Oh…” The chicken wringed his hands. “I’m sorry.”   
  
“It’s just not fair! Whenever Donald or Uncle Scrooge does something “dangerous,” it’s brushed right off, and nobody speaks of it again under any context, but when I do, it’s the end of the world, and I’m “endangering myself and my whole family” or whatever. So what if I want to plunge right into things? We’re  _ adventurers _ for crying out loud, and I’m capable of anything they can do, maybe even more!” She huffed in annoyance, trying to mask the tears welling back up in her eyes. “I love my family, I really do, but a lot of the time, it feels like they’re holding me back from reaching my full potential…and it kinda hurts.”   
  
Gyro took in everything she said, and for a while, he didn’t know how to reply. Then, something came to him, and he blurted it out before he could even second-guess himself. “I think I know what you mean.”   
  
Della leaned upward a bit to get a better look at Gyro, cocking her head to the side. “Huh?”   
  
“I mean, I’ve only had my full-time job for about a year and a half, but Mr. McDuck has shut down soooo many of projects under the guise of them being “too dangerous” or whatever,” he scoffed. “Even if I haven’t been working here as long as some of the others, I know how to handle lasers and knives on a robot!”   
  
“What? That’s crazy!” the duck exclaimed. “You’re like the smartest scientist he’s ever hired.”   
  
The chicken’s face heated up. “Oh, I wouldn’t say that-”   
  
“Are you kidding me!? Stop being so modest! Uncle Scrooge himself told me so.”   
  
Gyro suddenly felt his heart catch in his throat. “Really…?”   
  
Della paused for a bit. “Uhhhh, yeah, but I probably wasn’t supposed to say that, so don’t tell anyone. Especially the other scientists. They might try to kill you or something. Those guys are...you know.” She spun her finger in circles near her head.    
  
Laughing a little, Gyro found himself leaning back as well. “My beak is sealed. But seriously, you have a right to be mad. If there’s one thing I’m trying to teach myself, it’s not to listen to anyone who tries to hold me back from my full potential, and well, you deserve to hear the same.” He flashed her a warm smile.   
  
The duck looked genuinely shocked for a moment, before her expression settled into something touched and excited. “You really mean that?”   
  
“I don’t say things I don’t mean,” he reassured her, nodding.   
  
“Awww, Gyro!” Della leapt forward and gave him a quick hug. “You’re the best!”   
  
“Heh. I guess.”   
  
“No really,” she continued, “you’re super cool. You’re like my second brother or something.” Her happy expression faltered a little. “One that actually understands me.”    
  
Her words made Gyro feel warm inside. It had been so long since someone had said anything of the sort to him, if anyone ever had. “Della, that...means a lot to me,” he let her know, smiling.    
  
“Good because  _ you _ mean a lot to me, and if anyone ever tries to crush your dreams, I’ll run them over.”   
  
“I would say the same, but I don’t have a car, so I’d just have to build a giant robot to do them in.”   
  
“That’s fair.”   
  
She held out her fist to Gyro, who clenched his hand into one and bumped it against hers.    
  
“Hey, wanna grab some food?” Della suggested. “All that adventuring and stress made me a little hungry.”   
  
“You say that like you’re not always hungry,” he teased, nudging her playfully. “But yes. I was actually coming over to tell you about a breakthrough I had with the Oxy-Chew.”   
  
“Whoa, the air gum you were working on!?” she gasped. “Dude, you have to tell me about that over some burgers and milkshakes.”   
  
“Sounds like a plan!”   
  
With that, Della and Gyro got to their feet and walked toward the garage as the inventor was explaining his latest success, both of them glad to have someone in their life who understood their ambitions no matter how large.

* * *

“So what is your uncle going to say?” Gyro was curiously glancing across the table at the cup of tea that had been untouched.

“I really don’t know,” Della sighed. “I mean, what do I say? ‘Hey Uncle Scrooge, guess who got pregnant from a moon goddess?’ Is he even gonna believe that?’”

“Well...it wouldn’t be the weirdest thing he’s heard of...probably.”

The chicken shrugged. While he was still surprised by the news, he took it better than Della had hoped. She was just glad he didn’t freak out.

“It’s still pretty out there. And if he doesn’t believe that story, I gotta come up with something more realistic. Like uhhhh, maybe I can make up some heated romantic rendezvous I had on my last solo trip, and-”

“From like a year ago? He won’t buy it,” Gyro chuckled softly, pouring a second cup of tea.

“Hey, don’t laugh at my dilemma here!”

“Fine, fine, sorry,” he sighed. “You’ll think of something. I’m sure of it. You’re Della Duck, remember? But you should probably tell him soon because the longer you wait, the more obvious it’s going to be.”

“Obvious of what?”

“Ah, speak of the devil,” Della muttered, noticing that her uncle had just entered the parlor room from a business trip.

“Something going on, lass?” Scrooge smiled encouragingly as he walked over to the table, intent to pour a cup of tea for himself.

“Ah, well...yes.” Della cleared her throat, suddenly feeling incredibly nervous. Taking a deep breath, she sighed. “I’m pregnant, and  _ Gyro _ is the father.”

“WHAT?!” both men shouted, Gyro mortified at the sudden lie Della was telling. He shrieked as he was suddenly thrown to the ground, an enraged Scrooge McDuck ready to wring his scrawny neck.

“How DARE you deflower my niece, you little-”

“AHHH Della! Tell him the truth!” Gyro screeched as he tried to escape a terrific throttling.

“Wait, Uncle Scrooge!” Della yelped. “It’s not him!”

Scrooge didn’t remove his hands from Gyro’s head but looked up with a receptive glare.

Della swallowed hard. “It’s definitely not Gyro, trust me. I was just joking about that part because he was annoying me for a second there.”

“Then who is it?” Scrooge questioned sternly.

“...It’s...really complicated….like, really, really, really, REA-”

“Oh my god!” Gyro groaned with exasperation, cutting her off. “It’s the blathering moon goddess! There! Was that so hard?”

There was a long, tense silence for almost a minute, but soon, the old duck released Gyro, allowing him to stand up before flatly answering, “...Oh. I see.”

“A-Are you mad?” Della asked anxiously.

“No...of course not…”

Gyro felt his stomach knot as he saw his boss blankly stare ahead. “Er...Mr. McDuck, if I might say, I think-”

“Go home, Gyro,” Scrooge sighed. “Sorry for nearly skinning your hide.”

“Er...no troubles?” Gyro mumbled. “But I-”

“You can go home,” Scrooge dismissed him again tensely, and Gyro looked to Della, who only glanced at the floor in slight guilt.

The walk out of the room, into the foyer and out the front door had been one of the tensest moments of Gyro’s time with this family, and he hadn’t even  _ done _ anything.

* * *

A few weeks had passed since Della discovered she was pregnant. It didn’t seem to slow her down at all. She was still barging into the lab to have a chat with Gyro and dragging him all over town whenever both of them had time off. As his years spent in the lab grew, he found himself busier and busier. The other scientists started turning to him when they needed help, even though two or three of them had been working for Scrooge before him.    
  
None of them seemed angry about it though. If anything, they enjoyed having Gyro around to work with and play off of. For once, he actually felt like he belonged in an environment, which was something he wasn’t used to at all.   
  
One day (or night, rather, for he’d been staying in the lab a few extra hours) before he was about to clock out, he found himself nearly running into Scrooge on his way to the elevator.    
  
“Mr. McDuck!” Gyro exclaimed. “My apologies. I was just heading home for the night.”   
  
“Ah,” Scrooge noted, sucking in a breath of anticipation. “Well, if you aren’t in a hurry, I’d like to have a word with you.”   
  
Something about the tone of the billionaire’s voice made the inventor a bit nervous. He began to fret that maybe he’d done something wrong. Scrooge hardly ever called him over for personal talks between the two of them.    
  
Gulping, he nodded. “Yes, sir.”   
  
Scrooge looked from side to side, as if studying his surroundings and trying to make sure the two of them were alone. Then, he placed a hand on Gyro’s shoulder, causing him to tense up a little and began to lead him back toward his desk.   
  
“I came down here to let you know about an idea I have,” he began. “Since Della’s expecting, I thought it’d be appropriate to make a gift for her. Something she’s been wanting for a long time, and in the future, something both her and the little ones can enjoy. It has to be top secret though, between you, me and the rest of the research team.”   
  
Gyro’s face lit up. “Oooh! Are you finally going to let me make that knife-wielding security bot she wanted?”   
  
Scrooge frowned. “Ehhhh, no.”   
  
“Awww. Then what is it?”   
  
The old duck smirked, taking a rolled-up piece of paper out of his pocket. “This,” he announced, unrolling it and placing it flat down on top of Gyro’s desk.    
  
Peering over Scrooge’s shoulder, the inventor studied what appeared to be blueprints for a rocket. It was undeniably something Della had designed, for if there was one thing he’d come to learn about her it was that she was quite good at this stuff. At the top of them, in her handwriting, were words.   
  
“The Spear of Selene?”   
  
Gyro looked at Scrooge when he repeated the work’s title, and the duck nodded in affirmation. “Yep. I want to build that girl a rocket. And I want  _ you _ to be the head inventor behind the project.”   
  
“W-What!?” Gyro yelped, taken off-guard by the last thing Scrooge asked of him. “You want...me? Not someone who’s been here longer?”   
  
“C’mon, lad! You know Della more than any of them could even dream to. And I know you can do it. You’re one of the brightest minds I’ve ever met in my entire life.”   
  
His compliments made the chicken’s face flush, and his eyes widened. “Really?”   
  
“Of course! This is a family matter, Gyro,” Scrooge continued, “and if any of my employees under research deserve to be called a part of this family, it’s you.”   
  
Gyro paused for a moment, taking in what had to be one of the most meaningful things anyone had ever said to him. Then, a smile slowly made its way to his beak, and he blinked in appreciation, nodding his head.   
  
“Well, in that case, I suppose I should make the family proud.”

* * *

“So when did you start wearing eyeliner?” Della asked as she leaned casually on Gyro’s desk.

“Mm? I’m not though.”   


“Then how else did you get such dark circles under your eyes, man?” she laughed, nudging him. “Don’t tell me you’re doing late night reading until 5 AM again.”

Gyro was about to casually express that he was busy working overtime, but then held his tongue. If she asked about his project, and he declined to speak about it, she would get curiouser and curiouser.  

Instead, he gave a sleepy smile and shrugged. “I’ve been buying more books. What can I say?”

“You’re such a nerd,” she snickered affectionately, swatting his head and walking off to reclaim her eggs from Donald. Ever since she’d had them, her brother was as much of a pain as before, but at least he made for a good babysitter.

Sighing in relief as she left, Gyro continued his daytime work. He perked up in delight as the clock struck five, and he waited for the rocket’s team members to arrive for late night work. Scrooge had already told him he should sleep at home during the day and not put in so many hours as a regular lab worker, but when Gyro expressed worry that Della would get suspicious, Scrooge made no attempt to argue.

Still, Della noticed how much busier Gyro was during his days off. He hardly took up her invitations for outings, saying he was busy or sick or had conflicts. She wasn’t going to question it, but she certainly couldn’t help but be curious.

* * *

More time passed. Gyro and the other scientists had made a lot of progress on the Spear of Selene, and it was almost time to put it into the testing phase. It was also almost time for Della’s eggs to hatch, something everyone, including Gyro, had been excited to see happen. According to his boss, it could happen any day now. Knowing this made him even more eager to finish the rocket, and he found himself working even longer than he had to. 

He would spend days cooped up in the lab, tolling away at the secret project even when everyone else had gone home. Sometimes, he’d even forget to leave the lab all day and would be surprised to see the sun both rise and set while he was working. The busy inventor also found himself forgetting basic everyday tasks such as eating, drinking and anything of the sort. For as long as he could remember, he lived and breathed nothing but the Spear of Selene and had little to no time to do much of anything else. This included hanging out with Della.   
  
One night, when he’d lost track of time and was up past 2 in the morning making some finishing touches to the blueprints of the rocket, a sudden voice behind him caused him to roll up his work and nearly fall out of his seat.    
  
“Watcha got there, Gy-guy?”   
  
After composing himself, he whipped around as fast as he could to see Della staring him down and gripping the chair he was sitting in with both hands. He smiled nervously, wringing his hands anxiously.    
  
“Oh! H-Hey, Della. I didn’t think I’d see you here.”   
  
“Yeah, well, I don’t know where else I’m gonna find you since you’ve become a complete shut-in,” the duck joked, but Gyro could sense that there was a more complicated emotion behind the tone.    
  
“My apologies,” he replied, looking away. “I’ve just been rather busy lately.”   
  
“Busy on what?”   
  
Gyro was about to open his beak to explain, but then he remembered Scrooge’s demands to keep it a secret. Instead, he crossed his arms. “I can’t tell you.”   
  
“What!?” Della gasped, sounding genuinely upset by his response. “Why not?”   
  
“I was ordered to keep it top secret,” he confessed.    
  
“Even from me?” She elbowed him in the side. “C’mon, Gy-guy! You’ve told me about your secret inventions before. Why is this one any different?”   
  
The chicken gulped hard again, unable to look Della in the eye as she prodded him. “It’s not like I don’t want to tell you,” he continued. “I’d love to! But I’d also love to stay employed, so I can’t do that.”   
  
“Someone hasn’t had his coffee today,” Della said with a frown, crossing her arms in frustration. Then, she began to whistle idly and snake a hand around Gyro in an attempt to take whatever blueprints he had on his desk away from him.    
  
Acting out of impulse, shock and sleep deprivation, Gyro let out a shrill noise and swatted her hand away from the blueprints, turning around to stare at her as he snapped. “I told you  _ no, _ Della!”   
  
Almost as soon as he’d reacted in such a way, the inventor knew he’d messed up. His expression softened in worry as he took in how taken aback Della looked by what he’d done, and he watched as she stood there for a moment, blinking in confusion at why her friend would act that way toward her. Then, she sighed.    
  
“Geez. You’re no fun anymore.”   
  
Gyro tried to think of something to say, anything that would ease her mind but not give away any secrets. “Della-”   
  
“No, I get it. You want to be alone.” She turned away from him. “I don’t want to bother you any more than I already have.”   
  
Although he wanted to badly to say something to stop her from leaving, words just wouldn’t come to Gyro’s mind in time, and she was gone before he even had a chance. Heart heavy, he stared at the elevator for a little while before going back to his blueprints. Hopefully, he could make this up to her by finishing the rocket as early as he possibly could.

* * *

 

After two days of radio silence from Della, Gyro couldn’t stand it anymore. The rocket wasn’t quite ready yet, but it was hard to focus on it when he was convinced his friend...his  _ best _ friend at that, hated him for rejecting her curiosity. He began to text out an apology to her, trying to think of something sincere and honest but also without causing any trouble. That last part might be difficult. It was Della, after all.

_ I’m sorry for snapping at you the other day, _ Gyro texted,  _ but I sincerely can’t tell you about the project I was working on. Your uncle told me not to. _

He put his phone down on his desk as he continued to work alone in the lab. It was at least 2 AM, and he didn’t think Della would answer it until morning, but less than five minutes later, his phone buzzed, and he picked it up.

_ Why does he not want me to know? Is it a project for me? _

Gyro swallowed.

_ Can’t say. _

Another response less than a minute later.

_ That means yes _ _  
_   
Damnit! Gyro tried to think of something else to say, but his friend was already typing a second text.

_ Is it for my kids? He didn’t tell you to build a nursery did he? Ew _

Gyro couldn’t help but chuckle and texted back.    
  
_ Not a nursery _

There was no response for ten minutes, and Gyro decided Della probably went back to bed. But then, he suddenly received another text.

_ WAIT IS IT A ROCKET _

“Mother _ fucker _ !” Gyro swore, almost throwing his phone on the desk. “How does she do that?!”    
  
He wanted to pull at his feathers at how stupidly quick she was at deducing these things. It wasn’t like he could lie now. She’d kill him if he made a fool of her, but he couldn’t tell her the truth either. So he decided not to answer. If she came to him in the morning, asking why he didn’t respond, he could just say he fell asleep at his desk and accidentally deleted all of their message thread when his face fell on his phone.

That wouldn’t have been a completely unbelievable lie anyway. At that moment, he was growing weary from nonstop work, and the darkness of the lab sans the light of his desk lamp was letting him sink into a sleepy haze. He yawned heavily, blinking his eyes like they were being pulled closed by five ton weights. Maybe if he rested his eyes a bit, then he’d be able to keep working until 6 and be able to go home and sleep until noon.

His consciousness was about to sink away until he was suddenly startled awake by a loud slam on the desk, and he screeched in response.

“I KNEW IT! It WAS a rocket you’re building!”

“Della!?” Gyro yelped, trying to fold the blueprints for secrecy, even though it was futile. “How did you-”

“I knew something was hinky when I couldn’t find my designs for my rocket anywhere! And then I find them on your desk!” She laughed excitedly. “So, is this what my present is? Where is it? How big is it gonna be? And when can I fly it?”

Gyro groaned as he realized he screwed himself over and then sighed in warm defeat. “I can’t tell you where it is. It’s not ready yet. Testing has to be done, but hopefully, within a week, it will be good for use.”

A spark of delight flashed in Della’s eyes, and she squealed. “Oh my god, are you serious? I’m gonna get to take my kids to the moon! Ha!” She pulled Gyro’s head into a tight hug against her chest. “You are  _ incredible, _ Gyro!”

“Can’t breathe,” he muffled.

“Ah, sorry! Didn’t mean to give you a face full of tits,” she cackled, slapping the desk with both hands repeatedly in excitement. “I gotta go see it. I gotta-”

“Woah, hey don’t do that! Otherwise, you uncle will know I told you.” Gyro frowned in concern. “My job’s on the line if this thing gets leaked.”

Della gave a moody sigh and crossed her arms. “Awww, man.”

“I’m sure he’ll take you out to see it once it’s done,” he assured, smiling tiredly.

“Yeah, yeah, okay,” she huffed, then smiled widely at him. “You should probably go home and get to bed, Gy. You look like a zombie, and I bet your old fuzzball Pebbles would like kitty snuggles.”

“She sheds all over the bed.” Gyro sighed as he thought about the dirty old stray Della had gifted him two years ago, then yawned. “But you’re right. I should probably get home. I have to be in by noon tomorrow.”

“Noon, huh?” The duck smiled. “Well, you better get on home then. I don’t wanna keep you from your bed!”

“Mm, right, right,” Gyro yawned and stood up stiffly, grabbing for his coat. He perked up when he was hugged from behind by Della and glanced down in confusion.

“You’re like the best friend ever, Gy.”

Gyro couldn’t help the smile that grew on his face and blushed slightly in embarrassment. “It’s nothing really. You should get back home too, before your brother wonders where you went.”

“Don’t worry,” she assured, walking to the elevator with him to escort him to the bus stop. 

He bid her a sleepy goodnight as he got onto the bus, and she gave an exuberant wave back, not stopping as the bus vanished down the street.

* * *

The next morning, Gyro tried hard not to let his anxieties about Della knowing about the rocket get the better of him. While part of him couldn’t stop beating himself up over it, the other part felt more at ease knowing she was no longer upset with him. He went about his day as normal, adding all the finishing touches to the rocket he could think of with his colleagues by his side. Somehow, the thoughts keeping his mind busy helped motivate him to get as much done as he possibly could, more than he even thought of being able to do in a day.   
  
By the time the clock struck midnight, the rocket was done. It would still need to be put through a few tests, but other than that, it was complete. And all Gyro could think of while he stared at it was how much his friend was going to love it.

Since he’d pretty much completed the project he’d been tolling away at for so long, the inventor was ready to reward himself with a nice warm bed and all the sleep he’d been missing out on. However, right as he was about to lock the lab up and return to his apartment, the telltale ding of the elevator opening caught him off-guard. He focused his attention on its doors, expecting it to be one of his colleagues who realized they forgot something once they arrived home or his boss coming to check in on him. It was neither.    
  
The doors of the elevator opened to reveal Della. At first, Gyro was relieved to see his friend, but then he noticed that something seemed off. She wasn’t running at full speed toward him to tackle him and rub the feathers on his head as she always did. Instead, she was trudging her feet, and her expression was a blank slate. Her eyes were glaring ahead, but it seemed like her mind was elsewhere.    
  
“Della?” he asked, immediately concerned for his friend.    
  
She didn’t speak. Instead, she barreled past him, not even acknowledging that he was there. This worried Gyro immensely, and as he noticed her venturing further and further into the lab, he ran after her.    
  
“Della!” he called, catching up with her and walking by her side. “Is something the matter?”   
  
Again, nothing. His friend just continued down the hallway, acting as if he didn’t exist. Then, as she neared the room where they’d been working on the Spear of Selene, he finally realized what was going on and instinctively grabbed her arm.    
  
Della gasped at the sudden contact and turned around quickly, glaring at Gyro with a bit of a hurt expression. “Let go of me.”   
  
“No!” Gyro spoke, voice cracking. “I told you, it’s off limits! Mr. McDuck will kill me if I-ahh!”   
  
He was taken by surprise as she roughly pulled her arm away from him, causing him to slip up as she ran at full speed toward the room at the end of the hallway. She was just about to turn the doorknob when Gyro’s shrill scream caused her to turn around.    
  
“Della! What are you doing!?”   
  
“I’m taking the rocket for a test run!” she shot back, fumbling with the lock on the door and realizing that it wouldn’t budge for her. “Ugh, you got a key for this thing?”   
  
“No you’re not!” the inventor gasped, running up to her and throwing himself in-between the door and Della. “I just finished it a few minutes ago. It needs testing, and it’s nowhere near stable.”   
  
“Gyro, please, just let me do this-”   
  
“I can’t,” he spoke, feeling his body tremble with how much this hurt to say. “I’m sorry, but I just can’t.”   
  
She looked up at him with pain clear in her eyes, clenching her fists. “You don’t understand, Gyro. My family doesn’t think I can do anything! Especially my brother.” She glanced to the side at the mention of Donald, making it evident that they’d recently had a fight. “I need to prove to them that I’m not weak and worthless. I want to show them that I can do this!” The duck flashed him her best attempt at a smile. “Please….”   
  
“B-But…” Gyro began to think back to all the times like this, where he’d often console her and promise to her that he’d do his best to never hold her back, and the fact that he heavily sympathized with what she was going through. He brought a hand to his beak as the suddenness of needing to make a choice overwhelmed him, and he felt close to crying. Before any tears could actually slip out, a hand touched his shoulder, and Gyro looked up to see Della grinning at him, smile wide and genuine.    
  
“It’ll just be one test run to the moon and back, Gy-guy,” she promised, patting him on the back gently. “I’ll keep myself safe up there.”   
  
Gyro took a moment to think what she said over, and finally, a small smile began to form on his beak as well, and he sighed. “Okay. I trust you.”   
  
Della let out a squeal of excitement, and her expression suddenly changed to something much more joyful. “You really are the best.”   
  
The chicken replied with a small grin.   
  
“Now, c’mon! We gotta get to the ship fast,” Della demanded, voice frantic.   
  
“Why?”    
  
“Because I left Scrooge a note, and if he reads it before I’m gone, he’ll try to stop me.”   
  
Gyro squinted his eyes. “.....And you did that why?”   
  
“I want him and Donald to see me!”    
  
“The sound of the rocket launching alone surely would have gotten their attention.”   
  
“Gyro, just roll with me here!” Della tried to open the door again, and as she feared, it didn’t budge. She groaned. “Got a key handy?”   
  
“No, but the rocket’s not in there. Just a lot of blueprints and prototypes,” Gyro informed her, chuckling. “Why would a rocket meant to go in the sky be in an underwater lab? I mean-”   
  
“There’s no time for your sarcasm!” Della cut him off, grabbing him by the wrist and starting to drag him out of the lab. “Where is it?”   
  
“T-The launchpad behind the bin!” Gyro yelped, wincing as he felt the much stronger duck tug on his arm and yank him around as if he were nothing. “The old one that nobody ever really uses anymore.”   
  
“Of course,” Della grumbled, reaching the elevator with Gyro still in tow. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Your excitement?” Gyro suggested as they stepped inside, and the elevator carried them up to the ground floor.    
  
Della gave a hopeful grin. “Want me to get you a snapshot of the moon?”

“If you can,” Gyro sighed, smiling in spite of the rules he was breaking. 

Before Della left, and he headed for the control console, he spoke up in jest.

“You know, you should have at least pretended to act surprised.”

* * *

Gyro didn’t know what was worse: that he was most definitely going to get fired when Della landed, or that Della would be so grounded that he wouldn’t see her until her uncle was dead, which probably was never going to happen based on his alleged immortality.

The billionaire had, by coincidence, been present on the launchpad to take photos of the rocket when Della had climbed in, and Gyro launched it. And of course, it was impossible to miss, considering he was about two hundred feet away from it.

A ten minute walk from the launchpad to the control room ended up being just two with the speed Scrooge was running at, and Gyro was caught like a deer in headlights when the door burst open. Scrooge had been beyond furious and was speaking so loudly and fiery that Gyro could hardly understand anything beyond being told to get out and to wait outside the room while the duck tried to contact his niece.

Gyro had kept his ear to the door, silently cheering on Della as she verbally refused to come back until she reached her goal. If she was successful, then maybe Scrooge would be impressed enough not to rip his feathers out one by one.

Suddenly, he heard Scrooge getting more and more panicked as he shouted to Della about a cosmic storm, and she replied dismissively as before. A knot grew in Gyros stomach. The rocket was tough, he built it as such, but he had no idea how it would face such a dilemma...there had been no way to test for it.

He was about to open the door to inform Della that maybe it was best she turn back. Then the sound, the  _ horrible _ sound of thunder clapped in his ears, echoing like a hollow tomb.

He had no idea what just occurred for several seconds until he heard Scrooge McDuck scream his niece’s name in absolute dismay. The inventor kicked open the door a second after, unable to stand by in case of crisis, job security or not. And in less than ten seconds, Gyro learned to fear the noise of thunder and the crash of lightning.

The communication board read  _ Transmission Lost _ .

A few minutes later and before Gyro had enough time to process what was going on, Scrooge walked toward him. His boss’ eyes were focused ahead, and his expression almost unreadable, but he knew what he had to be feeling. Even if he couldn’t exactly wrap his brain around what had happened and could only sit there, resembling a frightened child in the body of a grown man. 

Then, Scrooge turned to face him.    
  
He couldn’t do anything: speak, move, defend himself in any way. All he could do was meet the gaze that was still like a blank slate, shocked to the core as it bore its way into Gyro’s very being and caused his heart to accelerate until he feared it might explode in his chest. And then, the features on Scrooge’s face began to move. His eyes, as if in slow motion, shut tight, and his beak opened, a wail escaping. He leaned against the wall, as if he was going to be sick. He broke down.    
  
The inventor had never heard him cry before, let alone as hard as he was right now. Watching it made the whole situation feel even less real. Della Duck, his best friend of many years, was gone, and he was partially responsible for that. But instead of firing him on the spot, all Scrooge could do was crumble in front of him, which somehow made him feel worse than he could have imagined losing his job would.    
  
Gyro wasn’t much of a cryer himself, especially when the situation he was going through made him feel more shocked than anything else. Still, even as he stared ahead and tried to convince himself that maybe this was just a bad dream he would eventually wake up from, something caught in his throat, and a drop of water landed on his knee.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some content warnings: This chapter contains some allusions to suicidal ideation and trauma and mentions the death of a pet. If these are things that are distressing to you, please tread carefully.

Gyro didn’t know exactly how many days he’d spent in bed. Realistically, probably no more than four. He’d thought to maybe count the sunrises and sunsets, but there didn’t seem much of a point. Only once had he gotten up, in the middle of the night, to fill his cat’s food bowl. He didn’t eat. And even though he lay in bed, he didn’t really sleep because he knew if he fell asleep, he’d dream. And he would hate to have any dreams that would give him false hope of reality. He even dumped the medicine prescribed for his insomnia out the window the day before.

He didn’t know how long he could keep this up. Maybe until his body expired from starvation or exhaustion? He didn’t want to really be alive, but he had rent to pay in a week, and nobody would want to look after his cat. Pebbles had a bit of a bad reputation around the apartment complex. But he also was terrified of seeing Mr. McDuck again. He hadn’t fired him or yelled at him or done anything to him at all since the accident, and Gyro had more or less decided he was undeserving of his job. His best friend was probably dead in space, and it was all his fault.

He’d cried for the third time in days, tears soaking against his pillow, and he only managed to stop when Pebbles had buried her old, matted fur against his face and purred. It hardly made him feel better, but it did allow him to remain numb. By the fifth day, Gyro had forced himself to eat two bites of cereal and immediately returned to bed. His apartment was a mess, and he was an even bigger one.

He’d never felt worse in his life. In spite of his vow to never sleep again, his body effectively forced it on him, and his heavy eyelids were almost glued shut as he lost consciousness. Thankfully, his sleep was too deep for any sorts of dreams. It had been deep enough for him to drown out all of the city life outside his window, his cat’s cries for attention and any passersby in the hallway. And apparently, deep enough to not hear his door as it was forced open.

“ _Gyro...Gyro?_ Gyro?!”

The shout of his name and the physical shaking of his body had forced his brain to jolt back to consciousness, and he gave a yelp as he suddenly squirmed to sit upright and face his attacker.

The panic was still evident on Scrooge McDuck’s face as he let his body almost collapse with relief. “G-Good heavens lad, I thought you’d gone and done something to yourself.”

Gyro was both terrified at seeing his old boss and confused at what he’d said, trying to find words in his exhaustion and bleariness. “I...something to myself?” His eyes caught the discarded, empty medicine bottles he’d left on his nightstand, and his stomach dropped, realizing what the fear had been. “O-oh...oh no I didn’t. I-”

“Thank goodness.” The old duck sounded ready to cry, suddenly pulling Gyro into a hug. “Don’t scare me like that. I’ve been trying to call you for the last two days, and I didn’t know what to make of it.”

Gyro was still trying to make heads and tails of what was going on, even more confused by the tight hug he was wrapped in. He felt his eyes burn. “I-I don’t deserve any of your time sir,” he choked. “All of this is my fault, and I-”

“Come now, lad.” Mr. McDuck rubbed his back gently. “You had no way of knowing this would happen.” Sorrow hung deep in his voice as he put his hands on Gyro’s shoulders. “I should have known that sooner or later you would tell her about it, and she’d ask you to launch it for her. She trusted you too much for you to let her down and drive her away.”

Gyro was surprised at how much clarity there was to Scrooge’s understanding of what had happened, but even then, Della was gone, and it was all because she had trusted him _._

“Mr. McDuck, I-”

“I need you to do something for me. For _Della_ .”   
  
He rubbed at his eyes, both because he’d been asleep for so long that his vision was blurring and because he really didn’t want his boss, of all people, to know he’d been crying. “Yeah?” 

Scrooge sighed, sympathy flashing through his eyes. “I need you to come back to work.”

A small gasp left Gyro’s throat. “What?”

“You heard me,” he continued, speaking sterner but not in an angry way. “You can’t stay cooped up in here forever, Gyro. We both know this isn’t how you’re meant to live, and it’s not what I want or what Della would’ve wanted either. I’ve been worried sick about you ever since the accident, and I….” He appeared to sniff back a tear before continuing. “I can’t bear to lose anyone else right now.”

His words shocked the inventor to the core, and for a moment, he couldn’t process them well enough to know what to say in response.  
  
“Why?”   
  
Surprise became present on Scrooge’s face. “What do you mean why? You’re one of my brightest scientists, Gyro! I can’t-”

“I don’t think one of your brightest scientists would’ve led your niece to her death, but I suppose I’m glad one of us still feels that way.” Gyro wasn’t sure where the sudden vitriol in his voice was coming from, but he couldn’t stop it.

“B-But….” Scrooge’s voice trailed off for a moment, and he had to gulp to collect himself. “I need you!”

“No you don’t!” Gyro found the words tumbling from his beak before he could stop them, clenching his hands tightly into fists. “I can’t be an inventor anymore. Not after that. I can’t let myself hurt anyone else the way I hurt Della.” He was trying hard to fight back his tears as he remembered his best friend who he couldn’t quite convince himself was gone, yet one still rolled down his cheek. “Why would you want me back after-”

“It was my fault.”

Out of everything, modesty was possibly the last thing Gyro expected to hear from Scrooge McDuck. His head shot up, and his eyes blinked open. “H-Huh?”  
  
Scrooge heaved a very heavy sigh, body thudding as he say down on the chicken’s bed. “I should’ve never made the rocket in the first place. It was a dangerous thing to do, having something like that built for someone so young and reckless. I should’ve seen this coming.” He took off his top hat, holding it to his lap. “Now my niece is gone, my nephew’s bound to never speak to me again, so many of my employees have up and left, including a good majority of the scientists, and everyone else has turned their backs on me as well. And I’m not going to lie and say I don’t deserve it.”   
  
Gyro had never seen his boss so defeated. At that moment, perhaps the most powerful man in all of Duckburg looked like a shell of his former self. The inventor couldn’t help but wonder if he looked that way to Mr. McDuck.

Finally, the billionaire got to his feet, shaking his head and putting his hat back on. “I’m sorry, Gyro. I know this is all probably very hard on you too. You don’t have to work for me anymore if you don’t want to-”

“I’ll come back.”

The duck stopped for a moment, turning his head around and his voice raising a bit in what sounded like relief. “You will?”

“Yes.” Gyro nervously tapped his fingers against his legs. “Not right away, if that’s alright, but...after a few days, I’ll come back to work. For you, sir.”

* * *

Returning to work had been more than a cryptic experience for Gyro. The lab was nearly deserted, the number of scientists inhabiting it being diminished to almost three quarters of what it used to be. Everyone who was still there was working in solitary and silence. Gyro’s desk had been trashed, and he’d spent almost the whole first day cleaning it of clutter. It would have taken less time, but he couldn’t bear to look at half the stuff that was in the drawers, having been gifts and knicknacks and notes from Della.

Scrooge had yet to give Gyro any specific projects. He figured it was out of grief. Instead, Gyro decided to look back on all of his shelved projects, the ones that had been labelled as too complicated or dangerous and wondered if it was worth picking one of them up. By the second day, just as he was almost decided on an unfinished blueprint, Scrooge had approached him, somber and austere.

“Gyro, I have a project for you, but it’s one where...I would understand if you wouldn’t be willing to do it.”

“What is it?” The inventor looked up with concern.

“...We’re going to look for Della.”  
  
The pencil he held in his hand fell to his desk, making a noise in the quietness of the room. He froze and couldn’t look his boss in the eye for a few seconds, something that made Scrooge a little distressed.

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” he tried to comfort him. “I know losing Della has hit you reasonably harder than the others. They are plenty of scientists on my team who can-”

“I’ll do it.”

Gyro spoke without thinking. He didn’t even need to think because no matter what, he’d have wound up saying the exact same thing. If he had a chance to make the one thing he really felt like he’d done wrong right again, he’d take it. Especially if it meant getting his best friend back.

However, it didn’t seem to be the answer Scrooge was expecting. “Are you sure? I’m not going to be upset.”

“I know. I want to do it.”

The coldness of the chicken’s tone shocked Scrooge, and he coughed a little, taking a small step backwards. “Okay then...is there anyone in particular you want to help you?”

Gyro shook his head. He couldn’t be bothered to even remember the names of the other employees at this rate. Most of the ones he knew had booked it as soon as Della disappeared, too afraid to be associated with something that had caused so much grief.

Before the day was over, Scrooge had recruited a handful of scientists for Gyro to direct with the project. Gyro made no effort to get their names. He was more invested in going home, taking a hot shower and getting a full night’s sleep. There was work to be done in the morning.

When he was finally laying in bed that night, he decided to leave the blinds open for the first time in weeks to get a full look at the stars. Somewhere out there was his friend, and he’d be damned if he didn’t find her. Deep in the pit of his stomach, there was the dread of discovering her final resting place and having his last service to her be a pallbearer, but she was tough. Somehow he knew she was still out there.

Pebbles climbed onto his bed, and he pet the animal as she lay by his side, her old and tired purrs a comfort to him. “I’ll get you home, Della. I promise.”

* * *

Gyro was eventually assigned to oversee getting Della back, as he had done the building of the Spear of Selene. However, he was much more stern about it than the former. During the building of the Spear of Selene, everything was hopeful and optimistic. The scientists would idly chat to themselves, Gyro included, as they worked away at what would surely be something that changed someone’s life in a positive way.

This was much more different. The work environment was solemn. Nobody ever so much as thought about opening their beaks as they worked at completing not one or two but several rockets, so many that Gyro eventually lost count, in order to make an attempt to locate Della. Fun and games were a thing of the past. It was time they got serious about their work, Gyro assumed, especially if they wanted to bring back his friend safe and sound.

He felt like everyone was expecting him to break down, but honestly, he couldn’t bring himself to feel sad, not even a little bit. His brain had been pretty one-track ever since he found out there was a way to bring his best friend home. It was like he focused all of his energy on doing anything in his power, overseeing the other scientists and making sure their work was more than adequate, making orders when needed and doing his best not to let himself get distracted by anyone. Until Della was back, Gyro promised to stay on work mode at all times, even lying awake in bed some nights and looking at the stars, making silent promises to her that he’d be there soon.

Gyro couldn’t really keep track on his own behavior anymore. Perhaps he was raising his voice more often or snapping at others on accident. He didn’t really know. If he was being honest, he couldn’t even remember much of what his personality was like before the accident. Maybe getting Della back would help him rediscover himself as well.

One day, while he was going over some blueprints for the cockpit of one of the rockets, Gyro felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see Charles, a cardinal who had been recently employed after about a year of being an intern. The younger bird was wearing a nervous yet sympathetic smile on his face. It confused Gyro.

“Yes?” he asked, pushing the blueprints aside for a second.

“Hello, sir,” Charles began, his voice quivering. “I just wanted to let you know that Mr. McDuck said you’re allowed to go home.”  
  
Gyro’s eyes widened. “Pardon?”

Charles gulped before speaking again, holding his hands behind his back. “Yeah! He said he’d been worried about you, that you weren’t getting enough sleep and all, so he told me to tell you that you have the rest of the day off!”

Skeptical as ever, Gyro glanced at the clock on his desk. It read 5:00. “I thought he had a meeting.”  
  
“Yes, sir?”   
  
“An investor’s meeting,” Gyro continued. “At 5:00 sharp. He let me know earlier this morning when I arrived.”   
  
Silence. Just as he’d expected. Charles looked completely dumbfounded, similar to a deer who had found itself face-to-face with the barrel of a gun.   
  
“I uh….” Charles swallowed hard again. “I believe it was canceled, sir.”   
  
Without saying a word, Gyro got to his feet. Charles was exceptionally short, so it was rather chilling how the other towered above him, piercing him with a glowering stare.

“Canceled?” Gyro questioned, raising a brow.

Charles nodded furiously. “Yes! I swear.”  
  
“Are you sure?” he asked, leaning in to where he could almost point out every individual bead of sweat on the cardinal’s face.

“Positive! I-”  
  
“Or are you just taking pity on me?”   
  
That did it. All faux positivity on the bird’s face dropped, and Gyro was met with nothing but fear staring him right in the face. He didn’t even have time to stop himself from taking advantage of it. And finally, Charles broke.

“Okay, okay! He didn’t say anything, but I know he’ll be fine with it, Dr. Gearloose! We all know you’re taking Della’s loss very hard, and we, especially me, thought it would be nice if you-”  
  
“Loss? Are you saying she’s gone?”   
  
Charles’ words died in his throat and were replaced with a very small yelp. “No! Of course not! There’s no evidence that she’s gone! I was just-”   
  
“What? Trying to tell me that everything I’m doing is a waste?”   
  
As Gyro continued to speak, he became more visibly enraged, and the entire lab had stopped to stare at him and Charles. The other was still desperately trying to apologize.   
  
“I never meant to imply any of that, sir! All I wanted to do was give you a chance to relax, a day off, so we could-”   
  
“So you could take over a project that I was assigned to lead? One that I was _meant_ to lead?” Gyro clenched his fists, visibly shaking. “Like you or anyone else here is even competent enough to oversee this thing for a day!”   
  
“S-Sir, please, I’m-”   
  
“Listen you ignorant little whelp, Mr. McDuck left me in charge of this project for a reason, and it’s one that I will not let a single person question my authority on. If you or anyone else has the gall to question me on that matter, then I will gladly explain to your face how much of an idiot you are, so you won’t even think of suggesting it again, do you understand?”   
  
Charles stood there, frozen in fear. Gyro wasn’t having it.   
  
“I said _do you understand!?_ ”   
  
His head moved up and down as quickly as it possibly could, and Gyro could see tears welling up in the corner of Charles’ eyes. He narrowed his own and adjusted his glasses, staring into the cardinal’s soul one more time before taking a step back and breaking eye contact.   
  
“Then go back to your part of the lab, and don’t speak to me unless it’s short, to the point and about what we’re working on,” he said, voice dripping with malice. “And never question my authority or personal wellbeing _ever again._ ”   
  
Charles didn’t speak. Gyro assumed he nodded before running away like a frightened child, but he didn’t care to look. He knew the entire lab was staring at him for a few minutes after, and that it was somehow even quieter than usual, but he didn’t care. The only thing he could even bring himself to care about was the project they - no, _he_ \- was working on.

The next day, Charles didn’t come to work. The day after that, Gyro was informed that he’d resigned.

* * *

When Scrooge called Gyro into his office, he finally got a good look at the result of almost four months of no sleep. With the heavy bags under glassy red eyes and disheveled feathers, it was like staring in a mirror for the two.

“Gyro, we need to talk.”

“I know,” Gyro spoke up, shaking his head. “I know I clocked in two hours late today.”

“That’s not what this is about, lad,” Scrooge assured. “I-”

“I didn’t intend for it to happen,” Gyro continued, then stared at his quivering hands. “I um...well….Pebbles died.”

The other didn’t continue what he was about to say. “Who?”

“Th-The cat Della gave me. She died sometime this morning, and I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t- I-” The chicken shook his head and pressed his beak together as he tried to keep himself composed. He screwed his eyes shut to hold back tears for the second time that day. “I wanted to bury her, so I took her out toward the beach.”

“Oh, Gyro...I’m so sorry.” Scrooge put a hand across the desk to comfortingly pat the other’s.

“She was old. I should have known it would happen sometime, but…” Gyro sniffed. “I won’t be late tomorrow. I promise.”

“Alright, lad, alright,” the duck sighed, sitting upright again and grimacing as he tried to think of what to say. “Then maybe I shouldn’t have this conversation right now and send you home so you can-”

“No, no, sir!” Gyro shook his head. “Whatever this is, I can handle it. I want to be able to get back to work as soon as I can.”

“That’s what this is about Gyro.”

Almost immediately, Gyro felt a rock fall into his stomach. “A-Am I fired?”

“No.” Scrooge rubbed his forehead, looking pained at what he was about to say. “My board had a meeting this morning, and...they’re forcing me to cease production on the next fleet of rockets.”

The tearing feeling at Gyro became so present inside him at that moment, so much that he was convinced his body would be ripped apart. “But...the last fleet didn’t find anything, and this next one was going to be able to detect-”

“I know…” Scrooge whispered, “but I have no choice.”

“B-but...you’re the richest duck in the world!” Gyro exclaimed, pulling furiously at his hair. “You should be able to use all the money you own and-”

“Gyro, it’s either we end the project, or they take everything from me.”

“What’s more important to you, your money or Della!?”

“Of course it’s Della!” Scrooge threw his hands up. “But I can’t lose my home, I can’t lose the rest of my family, and I can’t lose you! You’d be out of a job!”

Gyro couldn’t come up with a good logical answer and instead hurled his chair at the wall to his left with a furious, painful scream.

“Gyro!” Scrooge yelped.

The chicken was on his knees, tearing in rage at the carpet, vision blurred by hot angry tears. His rampage didn’t cause much damage as he was pulled backward by his boss, who kept a tight grip on him so he couldn’t move. Tears ran down Gyro’s face as he sank helplessly into the carpet, wishing his spirit could leave his body right then and there and float to space to do what the rockets couldn’t.  
  
After a few moments of hearing the other’s choked sobs, Scrooge stepped away from Gyro and allowed him to stumble to his feet. He brought an arm up to wipe vigorously at his face, lifting his glasses in the process. Nonetheless, tears still fell from his eyes, just at a slower pace.

“I’m so sorry,” Scrooge spoke, voice hardly even a whisper.

Gyro said nothing. He just stared blankly ahead at something which Scrooge realized a few seconds later was a picture he had on his wall or at least one of the many of them. This one had Della front and center, although you could see Scrooge himself and Donald in the background.

What happened next took place before either of them could even think about stopping it. They both wished they’d seen it coming after, but then again, who would have expected Gyro to lose all of his bearings for just a few seconds and send his fist lunging into the picture as hard as he could. A choked noise left Scrooge’s throat when he heard the crack of glass and possibly bones shattering at the punch and saw how Gyro didn’t even flinch, but that must have hurt. He could tell by how the other held his hand afterward, still staring ahead with tears streaming down his face and his chest heaving. The duck could even make out some blood there. Gyro definitely needed medical attention, but Scrooge couldn’t even suggest it until the initial shock of watching the event unfold went away.

As for Gyro, that was possibly the first time he acknowledged how high his pain tolerance really was. Rather this was a result from past experiences or something he’d lived with his whole life and just now figured out was unknown.

* * *

Neither Gyro’s hand or his self were quite the same after that. Both had been severely splintered by the damage inflicted upon them. The former was healing much better than the latter. A cast couldn’t be put on a fractured soul.

When he returned to work, his cold, austere demeanor was definitely causing a sensitive aura of discomfort for the other scientists, and they made a silent vow to avoid setting the inventor off. However, thanks the instances of mania and general tension he was causing with his mannerisms, the number of scientists inhabiting the lab was dropping fast. It bothered Gyro very little, though. He’d wordlessly taken up the jobs of those who left without any trouble or complaint, and he made sure they got completed twice as fast.

Scrooge wanted to be impressed with Gyro’s work ethic, and in a way, he was, but as the anniversary of the loss of his niece grew nearer, Gyro drowned himself in more and more work. Sure, he smiled more, but Scrooge got the sense it was a smile of delusion and mania rather than genuine cheer. Gyro hadn’t felt genuine cheer after Della left. He just didn’t have the time or patience for it.

When it was finally a year since the accident, Scrooge had tried to keep a discreet, careful eye on Gyro. He even offered to let the inventor stay at his home and have a nice hot meal. Gyro had declined and simply went about his business of inventing like a madman on adrenaline and caffeine. Scrooge hardly slept that night, in fear that Gyro would do something rash out of grief, but the next morning, he arrived to work bright and early like nothing was out of the ordinary. Unbeknownst to Scrooge, Gyro had no particular memories of the day before because there had been nothing for him to remember. Purely by power of his brain and denial, Gyro had forgotten the whole thing....sort of.  
  
Soon, several years had passed since the incident, and Gyro wanted to say things had gone back to normal because he’d gotten so used to the routine. However, it wasn’t true. He’d just found a new normal, one that wasn’t the best but was better than his life directly after the accident. At this point, the inventor, who was now the sole researcher for McDuck enterprises, couldn’t even remember what things were like after losing Della, just that they were unspeakably bad and something he didn’t care to look back on. Sometimes, he would see something that reminded him of the incident and go into states of morbid silence that couldn’t be interrupted, some lasting days and some lasting for only a few hours. But those weren’t as prevalent as they were so many years ago or at least he felt like they weren’t.

He’d surprised himself by his unchanged manner when he’d gotten word that Della’s brother and her triplets had returned to Duckburg and were living with his boss. He’d always told himself he couldn’t bear to look at them without the thought of Della coming to his mind, but when he actually met them, he felt nothing. They may have been related to Della, but they weren’t striking any intense emotions in him.

For once, Gyro wondered, maybe he’d managed to overcome the trauma that had been plaguing him for years, and he could carry on with his life as normal, and be the cheerfully productive inventor that he once was. Before he could really pat himself on the back however, a new force of nature with a personality far too familiar for him came into the picture.

* * *

Gyro didn’t want an intern. That he was sure of. He’d told his boss this time after time: no interns. There were many reasons for him feeling this way, the main being that he wasn’t sure if he made enough to pay one and really didn’t want anyone else trying to interfere with his projects. But the main reason for it was that Gyro just didn’t feel like working with someone else who wasn’t a robot.

Scrooge argued against this. He said he’d noticed how his head of research would spend hours and hours cooped up in his lab all alone and pointed out that it couldn’t be good for him. The billionaire also mentioned how Gyro’s inventions had typically been failures as of lately, which he couldn’t argue with.   
  
In fact, he thinks it might have been the ruckus caused by his most recent invention, Lil Bulb. He couldn’t be more disappointed in it, for it had been a project he’d shelved for over a decade. Scrooge had noticed his increasing failures and asked him to spend time working on something he felt like he could really dedicate himself to, and Lil Bulb seemed like the most obvious choice. Despite this, he couldn’t bring himself to give up on the little bot yet, so it would stay as his assistant around the lab for now. He needed help lifting heavy boxes anyway.

Unfortunately, Scrooge was adamant that Gyro needed a more organic assistant around, and more or less required him to put out a listing that offered an internship. And when Gyro refused that, challenging Scrooge’s will to fire him, the duck just went ahead and published it anyway. He didn’t mind at first. He didn’t think he’d get many applicants. But unfortunately, Scrooge had neglected to write that it would be an unpaid internship which was a very important detail when it came to a business run by a billionaire.

Gyro had never received so many calls and emails in his life, and all were from people he’d never even heard of. He ended up upgrading his spam filter and changing his phone number to avoid interaction, but one pest of a man managed to squeeze himself through the cracks, and one way or another, he ended up having to begrudgingly allow a fresh-faced duck into his domain.

Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera wasn’t completely incompetent, but his effervescent cheerfulness paired with his frequent clumsiness proved to be incredibly irritating for Gyro. He needed someone who would take his work seriously, and the nonstop chatter and smiling was not convincing him that the intern was doing such. And for some reason, it just reminded him of Della, and how she always managed to see right through his aloof nature and really keep him open and vulnerable. That was something Gyro never wanted himself to experience ever again.

Also, the inventor really didn’t know what to do with an intern, especially one who was so eager to please. He did his best to steer clear of him, giving him numerous amounts of busy work that weren’t things he particularly cared to get done. If there was anything he didn’t want, it was this nettlesome and accident-prone duck sticking his nose into any of his big personal projects that he hoped to succeed. Especially one in particular.

Ever since Lil Bulb failed to impress Scrooge’s board of investors and went a little “mad with power,” Gyro had been working hard to find a way to have more control over his robots. This finally resulted in the creation of Project Blatherskite, a suit of robotic armor that the wearer could control. It would be able to perform just about every task that Lil Bulb was created to fulfill, which was just about anything he could think of. It could also fly. That he was very excited about. However, he knew this was perhaps the most complex invention he’d worked on since the one that caused his life to take a turn for the worst. He needed to monitor it and make sure it didn’t fall into the wrong hands at all costs, and this included keeping it away from Cabrera.

One day, when he was busying himself with the blueprints for a shrink ray, he’d had Cabrera mop up the residue of a spilled coffee cup. While he knew it was Lil Bulb who had pushed his mug over, the robot was now perched happily on his desk and didn’t take too kindly to orders. Cabrera, on the other hand, acted like they were a blessing, so he didn’t feel bad about having him do it. What Gyro had failed to notice was how close the spill was to Project Blatherskite. If he had picked up on it, he’d have told Cabrera not to worry. But he didn’t, so the other’s voice piping up from the other side of the room took him by surprise.

“Hey! What’s in here?”  
  
His first instincts kicking in before he could even stop himself, Gyro leapt from his seat and ran as quickly as he could to where the invention was stowed away, shouldering Cabrera away from it. Then, he turned around and glared at the intern before raising his voice at him.   
  
“ _Don’t you dare touch that!_ ”

Gyro stood towering in front of Cabrera for a few seconds until he noticed how the intern flinched at his words. It wasn’t much of a reaction, for he appeared more shocked than afraid, but even the slightest sign that he’d gone too far took him back to something he wanted to forget. Realizing his outburst, the chicken heaved a deep sigh and tried to calm his nerves before speaking again.

“That invention is top secret. I can’t show it to you. Mr. McDuck’s orders.”

Cabrera nodded briskly. “Of course, Dr. Gearloose. My apologies.”  
  
“Whatever. Just leave it alone.”

As Gyro walked back to his desk and left Cabrera to his mopping job, he realized that he hadn’t exactly told the truth. Mr. McDuck wouldn’t care if Cabrera saw the invention or not, but if he knew what it was capable of, he surely would, so perhaps it wasn’t such a big lie after all.

* * *

Initially, Gyro was ready to wring out Cabrera’s treacherous little neck. He’d been steamed to begin with when he found out the intern had gone and discovered the passcode for Project Blatherskite, but uploading his top secret plans on the internet to get public input? Of course, he fired him immediately on the spot, and if life had been fair to Gyro, it would have been the end of it.  

Unfortunately, thanks to Beaks’ misuse of Bulbtech, Gyro had been put in a dangerous situation involving a runaway car. Somehow, Cabrera got a hold of the Blatherskite project and used it. Gyro would never describe it as a rescue, rather unsolicited assistance. Perhaps it was his own mightiness provoked him to show mercy on the intern and reverse his dismissal because it certainly wasn’t the stupid name Cabrera coined the suit with. Honestly, “Gizmoduck?” What was he thinking!

Anyway, if the project was prone to accidents, he’d need someone who could test it while he tracked results. Unfortunately, Gyro realized what a mistake that had been in judgement when he discovered Cabrera was making use of the suit beyond what he’d intended and without his surveillance. Almost immediately, Gyro regretted ever hiring the intern back. He especially regretted it when a missile-involved mishap resulted in the power-drained suit crashing to the ground.

Right then and there, the chicken knew Cabrera would be a danger to himself and others, and that suit would be the cause of it. He ordered that the intern be fired and the suit be destroyed by his new intern, Manny, a rather peculiar fellow recommended to him by Mr. McDuck who he didn’t really want to hire at first, but he was surprisingly competent and didn’t talk, so he let him stick around.

Of course, Cabrera managed to sneak off with it anyway. Gyro tried to get in contact with his boss for a whole week, expressing that he needed to use his influence to retrieve the suit, so it could be destroyed.  Much to his dismay, Scrooge was too busy to listen. And much to his internal horror, Scrooge wanted ‘Gizmoduck’ back at his company, hired as a full-time hero.

Once Cabrera was discharged from the hospital and working at the lab as Gyro’s coworker, things were quite different. Some of it was good. Now that he didn’t work for him but alongside him, Gyro could ignore the guy all day. However, he still had to look at him, and it was a lot harder than he thought it’d be.

Sometimes, Scrooge would come in to visit him and talk to him about the Gizmoduck project. Although he pretended to drown out all their words with the sound of whatever he was working on, Gyro heard a lot of it. Their boss telling Cabrera how proud he was of him, how he was doing something that had never been done before. He couldn’t decide if it made him jealous or angry or maybe some other emotion he’d been really good at hiding throughout the years, but it set something off inside of him that he didn’t like.

One day, Cabrera approached him. The two hardly spoke ever since they started working together again, mostly because Gyro would ignore every conversation the other tried to start, but this proved to be a rare occasion. He turned around to his coworker, raising an eyebrow in confusion and slight annoyance as he waited for him to get whatever he had to say over with.  
  
“D-Dr. Gearloose,” he began, wringing his hands, “I’ve ah, been wondering...well, you see, I know things are probably rather, um...stressful for you, being head inventor and such, but lately you’ve been even more-”   
  
“Spit it out already!”   
  
Gyro didn’t mean to say anything hostile, really. It just slipped out and left Cabrera looking like he’d set the whole lab on fire, and Gyro feeling more like an asshole than usual.   
  
Cabrera gulped before continuing. “Are you okay?”   
  
There were a lot of things Gyro wanted to say. Why do you care? Why are you asking me this? What kind of idiot is dumb enough to seriously ask me if I’m “okay” after hijacking the only project of mine that seemed to be going right? However, he took a deep breath in an attempt to keep his temper, knowing that going off on his coworker would only make things worse.

“I’m fine,” he answered. “Now go.”  
  
The other simply nodded in response and turned around to leave. But before he could exit, Gyro found himself doing something he never thought he would: continuing the conversation.

“Are you sure you can handle this?”

Cabrera seemed taken aback by the question, as if to question the context for a moment and gave an awkward smile. “Ehm...yes? I mean, I knew when I took this job, I’d be working under one of the most brilliant minds in Duckburg, and from your years of working here, I think I have some pretty big shoes to fill...well...if I wore shoes.” The duck chuckled slightly, waving one of his webbed feet.

His jesting tone only made the sharp twist in Gyro’s gut even more prominent. “I wasn’t referring to working as a lab assistant,” he answered sharply, but tone half as loud. “I was referring to the armor. My invention.”

“Of course I can! Knowing you and what you’re capable of, we’ll be unstoppable!” Cabrera spoke with such enthusiasm tha Gyro couldn’t handle keeping himself tamed.

_If you knew me at all, you wouldn’t say that._

“Alright, if you say so. That will be all.”   
  
Gyro’s tone was dry. Without waiting to see Cabrera’s reaction, he walked to the furthest corner of the lab away from him as he could. He’d managed to avoid interacting with him again for the rest of the day, only leaving the lab when he was sure Cabrera had long gone home.

He was greeted at the door by Peach, the cat he’d adopted at least two years prior and as per routine, opened a can of cheap drugstore salmon for her dinner. Based on his previous experience owning Pebbles, having some sort of animal inhabiting his space gave him at least one continuous reason to keep himself alive, in case his job and livelihood didn’t cut it anymore. An animal would need to be fed and cared for, and only he could ensure that.

After heating up near-week-old leftovers for dinner, Gyro continued into the rest of his mindless nightly ritual of preparing a hot shower and going to bed early right after. He never was much of a TV-until-midnight person these days.

He’d been rummaging through his chest of drawers for a clean towel, when in his exhausted state, he opened the drawer that he’d never thought to touch in years. Gyro had never been able to bring himself to look at the last few trinkets he’d left to remember Della by. Whatever hadn’t been discarded in rage had been blindly shoved into whatever space of hiding he could find. He’d regretfully disposed of so much that otherwise he’d have kept in memoriam of her. All that remained, in the corner of the drawer, was hardly anything that he would have put much value in otherwise: her half-hearted doodles on the crumpled receipts from the diner, a cheap airport keychain she’d given to him, the card she’d given him for his first promotion and Pebbles’ collar.

Gyro picked up the last item and held it in his open palm. On that horrible day, when the rescue mission was ceased, when he had to bury Pebbles, he’d had to start burying his memories of Della too.

* * *

_He was unable to stop smiling as he stared in awe at the cat Della was holding out for him. “Is that for me?”_

_“No, I’m holding a filthy stray cat out like this because it’s the newest fashion statement,” the duck snorted. “Now take her before she tries scratching my eyeballs out already! Do you want her or not?”_

_Gyro wordlessly snatched up the animal in his arms, not minding the stray’s claws suddenly moving to attack him from the shoulders up and examined her. “So this is what you’ve been calling ‘the little gremlin in your backyard?’ How could you not find her absolutely charming?”_

_“You eat black licorice and think banjos are cool. Of course you think this little beast is charming.” Della rolled her eyes with a good-natured smile. “Please tell me you’re gonna give her a bath or something though. She looks like a dirty mop.”_

_The cat had hissed in disdain and glared grumpily at Gyro, who was more than eager to press his cheek against the top of her head. “And what was it you were calling her alternatively?”_

_“Frosty Fruit Pebbles Cereal Cat.” Della shrugged, recalling the discarded box she’d found the cat hunkered down in. “...Why?”_

_“No reason.”_

* * *

The memories had become too painful for Gyro to continue wallowing in them. That was the only possible reason his chest had started hurting. At least he thought so until he realized he was submerged in water.

Shooting into an upright position, he immediately began to choke and spit out warm water and realized he was no longer sitting in front of his chest of drawers and rather, in the bathtub. He didn’t even know how he got in there. Or when.

Once he’d gained his breath again, Gyro tried to retain calmness and get a better sense of his surroundings. His eyes were swollen, and he had a certain feeling they were bright red with the odd sense that he’d been previously crying.

Oh. Perfect.

When Gyro finally stepped out of the bath and dried and dressed himself for bed, he’d stopped trying to make sense of what had just happened minutes earlier. Right before he’d fallen asleep, there was hardly any thought of Della in his mind. Peach had settled at the foot of his bed like every other night prior. His new normal.

  
  
  
  



End file.
